So I've been on somewhat of a new music surge (at least compared to the normal for me) as of late. I think it started when I downloaded several songs on Neil Peart's house music set list (the one they play before the shows) from Itunes. Among the groups I was newly exposed or gained a new appreciation for were: Porcupine Tree, The Mars Volta, The Tragically Hip, Jeff Buckley, King Crimson and early Genesis. Porcupine Tree especially hit a nerve with me and I subsequently have bought four albums by them. I especially like "Fear of a Blank Planet", "In Absentia" and "Deadwing". For reasons I'm not quite sure of, I also finally bought "Hunky Dory" by Bowie. I always liked the tunes from that album (Mick Ronson was a key player/producer) and I'm not sure why it took this long. I had been listening to "Life on Mars" repeatedly after hearing it a recent movie ("Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou?"), and decided to get the album.
I also recently bought albums by Amy Winehouse (Back to Black), Sheryl Crow (Detours) and Robert Plant/Alison Krauss (Raising Sand) but have only really got into the RP/AK effort. In my explorations I also got to checking out Itunes mixes by other users. These are basically just mix tape made by other Itunes users, but the nice thing is you can search them by keyword. So, in my typical music preference vein I searched for sad or melancholy mixes and actually found a really good one that has several tunes that I have grown quite fond of. Some of the artists on the mix were: "The Weepies", "State Radio", "City and Colour", "Jason Reeves", "Gregory and the Hawk", and "Cocunut Records". It's a really great mix tape and I'll be checking out the other stuff from these guys in the near future.
Unfortunately for many Rush fans in Houston and New Orleans, the shows got swapped to make way for the NBA playoffs which means Rush is playing Houston on Saturday the 19th instead of Sunday the 20th and there a lot of people trying to get rid of tickets they can't use now. On that note, I saw a deal on some Houston tickets for about half what they were going for before the date change. This is still a markup from box office, but it's so much cheaper than it would have been, and now with the show on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, the opportunity was too good to pass up. So we're now going to see Rush in Houston in two days (11th row on Geddy's side) followed by the Austin show on Wednesday night. Fan-frickin-tabulous if you ask me. And you did, you did.
For months I have been saying that I would be cutting back on my concerts with an extended vacation coming up and some inflationary belt tightening. However, the day is drawing close when Rush will be playing Austin on the 2nd leg of their Snakes & Arrows tour. A few days ago I was sitting in my office thinking about the upcoming concert and realizing I would be one hour's drive away from a Rush concert and I was missing it to sit at home and watch TV or something else extremely worthwhile. I knew that wouldn't work, especially since I'll have no chance at seeing shows for 12 months (e.g. Yes in August).
Rumors abound about set list and overall show presentation changes and upgrades for this leg. Foremost (at least in my mind) is the rumor that perhaps an entire album will be played and the leading candidates include Hemispheres, A Farewell to Kings, and Moving Pictures. While I have serious doubts as to the veracity of these predictions, I am still entertaining the idea of hearing an entire album from the vault. Oh yeah, for those who recall the dancing of the gloat, here comes the 2nd verse (same as the first):
We're not quite as close as the last show, but this time we're in the middle front floor section and being on the 11th row will probably mean a better sound mix.
So, in a fit of uncontrollable concert fandom I just broke down and scored some tickets for an upcoming "2nd leg" of a well known concert tour (at least if you read this blog). Since I don't have the tix in hand, I'll withhold on the full disclosure until I can post some scans for your viewing pleasure (you know who you are)…
Continuing the theme of the last quarter century, Robert Plant has nixed the idea of a Zeppelin reunion tour despite a rumored offer of $200 million dollars (American) per member. This story has been out for a couple of weeks now and it seems that continuing to move forward as an artist is more important to him than revisiting Zeppelin or giving a parting gift to the millions of Zeppelin fans worldwide. Here's one report from the many:
draws near. Ever since I saw Jimmy Page strutting around the stage with his low slung Les Paul I have wanted, no, needed one for myself (the guitar, you pervs). Verily, I say I had a case of the G.A.S. And the only cure for the G.A.S. is more cowbell a Les Paul of the cherry sunburst variety. Actually, I don't think it was called the G.A.S. back then, although I may have been known to say I was really "jonesin" for one. The G.A.S. for the LP only grew worse when I had friends who not only owned LPs, but could also play them well (mostly Zep tunes, but that is what they are designed for specifically)
My first really nice electric was the Fender EJ Strat which I will always play since it's a perfect guitar for what it does. However, just as a Strat has a niche (in my musical world, anyway) so does the Les Paul. I have always felt something was lacking when trying humbuckerish tones (JP, EVH, RR, Alex, etc.) Although it's true that 90% of tone is in the fingers, the guitar is important too. I have never desired to have dozens of different guitars, as I want to play my guitars not just collect them. That being said, I don't think any collection is complete if you don't have at least one good Strat and one good Les Paul (to be accurate I should also add a Tele, ES-175, SG, ….umm, in the interest of preserving the matrimonial peace I will say no more).
I found a good deal on a like new 2006 LP Standard in Heritage Cherry Sunburst which is coming via UPS in two days. It's actually not my first color choice (all due respect to JP), but as you can see it's immaculate and I will learn to love the color. Not to mention that I will immediately begin the aging process by playing it incessantly while neglecting the cosmetic upkeep. My old maxim holds true: if it looks like a museum piece, it probably sounds/plays like a museum piece.
More to follow if and when I take time out from playing…
It's been a tumultuous couple of months courtesy of my employer. I've changed duty stations, changed units, and gone on a couple of "field trips" since my last post. I returned yesterday from a trip to California which featured lots of sand but unfortunately, not much water. I'll try and update more here in the next few days as time allows.
… courtesy of Tom Brady and the Patriots. The Cowboys lopsided loss to the Pats wasn't indicative of the game as it was closer than the final score. That being said, the Cowboys now know how they compare to the league's best; they're getting closer but still fall a bit short. The Cowboys were down 14 early but managed to fight back with some great defensive plays and by finally completing a few actual drives on offense. They even took the lead early in the 3rd quarter, but unfortunately allowed the Pats to score 17 unanswered points after that to eventually lose by twenty points. The good news is that they still have room to improve and both sides of the ball were competitive for most of the game. I don't see how the Pats could improve, they're clearly the elite within the league right now. The Pats/Colts game in November should be a doozy. As for the Cowboys, they still have the clear lead in the the Division and they're're tied with GB for the best in the conference. Ironically, they played better in a losing effort this week compared to the last second gasp of a victory the week before.
Harkening back to the days of Staubach, the Dallas Cowboys tried very hard for 59 minutes to lose their Monday Night Football game against a Buffalo team that they were supposed to outclass in all aspects of the game, by scoring 9 points in the final twenty seconds to pull out the win. Tony Romo was at his worst as a passer and field commander, throwing 5 interceptions (two returned for touchdowns) and fumbling once to give the Bills every reason to run away with the game; luckily the Bill's only significant scoring was via the defense and special teams. There were about 5 crucial events that had to occur in order for the Cowboys to win at the end and miraculously, they did. Dallas managed to move the ball down the field and score in the final two minutes to put them a two point conversion away from tying the game. After TO failed to make the catch for the two points, Dallas needed to recover an onsides kickoff and then move the ball within field goal range for the winning kickoff. This with under twenty seconds left and no time outs. Then, the rookie kicker had to make a 53 yard field goal after having a longest previous kick of 45 yards earlier in the game. Amazingly, the Cowboys recovered the onsides kickoff, completed two passes and got out of bounds to move within field goal range and stop the clock, and then convert not one but two 53 field goals when the Bills coach pulled the last second time out trick that's all the rage in the NFL these days. Not since the seventies have I felt the tumult of emotions that occur during one of these two minute comebacks. The Cowboys were supposed to dominate on paper, the Bills deserved to win on the field, but Dallas managed to literally pull a win out of the air.
We've got our new digs and we'll be getting the infrastructure set up over the next week. We won't have internet access until next week (not that it would affect my posting regularly). I'll be updating our contact info shortly for those interested.
Rush returned to Smirnoff Music Centre in Dallas after a 3 year hiatus following the 2004 30th Anniversary tour. They performed in support of their most recent studio album Snakes and Arrows, their 18th studio album (I don't count Feedback) and first new release since 2002's Vapor Trails. They brought the monstrosity that is a Rush tour in it's full glory to the stage for over 3 hours of proggy splendiferousness. (feel free to quote me there).
Featuring the standard Rush show of lights, video, ear crushing decibel levels, rotisserie chicken (wah?) and fricking laser beams, there was something for everyone. (don't forget you can't get something for nothing, though) (sorry, couldn't help it). They opened the show with the perennial favorite Limelight (bookending with the last tour as this was the previous closer) and brought back some deeper album cuts including Digital Man and Entre Nous, followed by Mission and Freewill before introducing some new material.
The first new cut was the instrumental The Main Monkey Business which featured videos of monkeys and various other primates performing chucklelicous tasks like talking on the phone and driving a car (looking like the old film reels you've probably seen before) whilst a couple of the crew chefs came out and basted the rotisserie chickens. Yes, chickens. This year Geddy decided to escalate the superfluous gear arms race by replacing the dryers and rotating vending machine with three separate full size rotisserie chicken ovens like you would see at a restaurant. And yes, they were miced. Apparently he's no longer satisfied with the warm/dry tone and wanted a little more gristle and grease in his signal path. (lest we forget, talking about tone is akin to swimming about politics)
This was followed by The Larger Bowl from Snakes & Arrows and then Secret Touch from Vapor Trails. That led to a very deep cut in Circumstances from Hemispheres which I know hasn't been played in a long time, if ever. Next was my favorite Grace Under Pressure tune, Between the Wheels and then the set was closed out by Dreamline, which is one of the standouts off Roll the Bones.
Another amusing moment from the first set was about halfway into Limelight when Alex got a chance to see the little board babes (barbie dolls placed down by his pedals holding up post it notes like they were signs). The generally describe acts that are illegal in most countries or make salient observations you would expect from a groupie. I think the crew members make new batches up every night. As is typical, he was laughing until he had to focus on the solo. I hope someone is keeping a track of these messages as the ones I have seen are pretty funny. Examples are listed below.
After the intermission, they returned with a mini-set of all new material including Far Cry, Working them Angels, Armor & Sword, Spindrift, and The Way the Wind Blows. The pictures in Angels were especially moving, featuring people from various walks of life like construction workers, janitors, waitresses, nurses, and soldiers all with pairs of angel wings on their backs. All of the new material sounded even better live and got a really positive response from the crowd. After the new material they dipped back into the vault with Subdivisions, Natural Science, and Witch Hunt before returning to the new album with an instrumental section including Malignant Narcissim, the drum solo, and Hope. PGA tour Rocco Mediate (who had been checking out the stage pre-show, and gave me a very puzzled look when I shouted his name) came out to perform the chefly duties wearing a Rush baseball shirt and the chef's hat, of course.
They closed out the second set with Distant Early Warning, Spirit of Radio and Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer included an intro by the South Park kids with Cartman portraying Geddy Lee on the keyboards totally screwing up the lyrics. It was hilarious. There's a clip of that below as well. They came out for one encore, starting with One Little Victory (including that darn dragon and his flamethrowers), A Passage to Bangkok, and closing the show with YYZ.
From a technical standpoint the show went very well. There were no major equipment or performance problems and the sound was good to my ears which were admittedly overloaded in the second row. I'm sure the best sound was in the second tier of seats near the middle. It's always a trade off between a good view and a good sound mix. All three players performed superbly as expected and they still seem to be enjoying themselves putting on these shows. We had an excellent view of the whole stage from the second row on Alex's side and I was able to feast on the fretboard as much as I desired. The front row center got all the picks though. Bastards.
My overall impression of this show is much the same as the R30 show in that Rush is putting on the most complete show of their career and easily one of the best concert experiences anywhere in the world. They manage to combine overpowering sound, lights, video, lazers, smoke, snakes, dragons, humor, a deep set list, and just the force of their wills upon the audience of twenty thousand. I feel truly lucky that these guys still love to write, record and perform music and share it with their fans. Their love of music is what keeps them in the business more than thirty years since they started. I highly doubt there are any financial considerations at all, except perhaps to continue funding their ability to make music in the future.
Geddy closed the show out by saying "I hope we can see you guys again sometime", which I am hoping means they still feel like they have something to offer by returning to the studio and subsequently the stage in the future. No one could fault them for retiring after all they have accomplished in their careers, and we can at least live with the knowledge that we have their very large selection of DVDs and albums to relive the live experience as many times as we want in the future. Something tells me they're not done yet, though. Here's hoping.
Gear:
Alex: He played a variety of Les Pauls, the Gibson Howard Roberts, his iconic White Gibson ES-355 (rumor says a Gibson signature model is in works), various Garrison Acoustics including 6 and 12 strings, and a Mandola. His Les Pauls were outfitted in some cases with tremolos and piezo pickups. His Howard Roberts also had a piezo in it as well. His amps were all Hughes & Kettners with two Alex Lifeson Triamp MKII double stacks in the middle, flanked on either side by Switchblade double stacks. His rack mount was turned away from the stage front and his pedals on the floor weren't visible but I have it on good authority (i.e., guitar player) that he was using a Dunlop DCR-ISR Crybaby Rack wah, TC Electronic 1210 Spatial Expander & Stereo Chorus/Flanger, TC Electronic G-Force multi-effects processors (3) with 1 spare, and Voodoo Lab GCX switchers. He may have added a Loft chorus (the actual one used on Limelight). At his feet were the Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, Dunlop DCR-1FC foot controller, an Axess Electronics FX1 MIDI Foot controller, Korg MPK 180 Bass pedals, and a Boss TU-12H Tuner.
Geddy: Used mainly his black Jazz Bass (which may have been the original '72 or one of his signatures), a red Fender Jazz, the Jaco Pastorius signature (fretted and fretless, respectively) and the Rickenbacker. His onstage amplification was courtesy of the henhouse rotisserie ovens (3).
His official list from the tour book:
Guitars 1972 Fender Jazz bass Fender Jazz Geddy Lee model Fender Jazz Custom Shop bass Fender Jaco Pastorius Tribute fretless bass Fender Jaco Pastorius Tribute Custom Shop fretted version Garrison acoustic guitars
Amplification Avalon direct boxes, model U5 SansAmp RPM pre-amps Palmer speaker simulator, model PDI-05 Trace Elliot Quatra valve amps Sampson UR-5D wireless system
Keyboards and Samplers Roland XV-5080 sampler/ synthesizers Roland Fantom-X7 synthesizer Moog Little Fatty digital synthesizer Korg MIDI pedals
Neal: He played his "Snakes & Arrows" custom kit made by the Drum Workshop and described in detail in the tour book. It was the typical Neal monstrosity setup of acoustic drums, percussion, cymbals and electronic drums/pads.
The detailed set list/equipment blow by blow: (equipment listed as it changes. if nothing is listed they played the same gear from the previous song)
1. Limelight: Alex - Gibson LP Standard Honey Burst with tremolo, Geddy - Fender Jazz Bass Black
2. Digital Man: same
3. Entre Nous: Alex - Gibson LP Goldtop, 12 String Garrison acoustic
4. Mission: Alex - Gibson LP Tobacco Sunburst
5. Freewill: same
6. The Main Monkey Business: Alex - Gibson LP Goldtop
7. The Larger Bowl: Alex - Gibson LP Tobacco Sunburst (with piezo)
8. Secret Touch: Alex - Gibson LP Black Beauty with tremolo, Geddy - Red Jazz Bass
9. Circumstances: same
10. Between the Wheels: Geddy - Jaco Pastorius Fretted Jazz Bass
11. Dreamline: Alex - LP Honey Burst with tremolo, Geddy - Black Jazz Bass
Intermission
12. Far Cry: Alex - LP Cherry Sunburst
13. Working Them Angels: Alex - LP Cherry SB with Piezo, Mandolin with shubb capo
14. Armor & Sword: same
15. Spindrift: same
16. The Way the Wind Blows: Alex - Gibson Howard Roberts with piezo
17. Subdivisions: Alex - LP Cherry Sunburst
18. Natural Science: Alex - LP Honey Burst with tremolo
19. Witch Hunt: same
20. Malignant Narcissim: Geddy - Jaco Pastorious Fretless Jazz Bass
21. Drum Solo
22. Hope: Alex - Garrison 12 String
23. Distant Early Warning: Alex - LP Honey Burst with tremolo, Geddy - Black Jazz Bass
24. The Spirit of Radio: same
25. Tom Sawyer: same
Encore
26. One Little Victory: Alex - Gibson ES-355 White
27. A Passage to Bangkok: Geddy - Black Rickenbacker
28. YYZ: Geddy - Black Jazz Bass
Here are some additional show notes taken from 2112.net that further explain some show features better than I did:
The opening video begins with a dream sequence of Snakes and Arrows images, then Alex sits up in bed, saying, "Snakes? Who would dream about snakes, that's so creepy. Honey? Honey - wake up. I had this weirdest dream, it was a snake…" then the person lying next to him sits up and its Neil. They look at each other and yell in surpise and yell 'AHHHHHHHHHHH!", then after another sequence, Geddy wakes up in a chair and says "What did they do to my food?" and then in walks an old man in a Scottish kilt who speaks with a Scottish accent who tells Geddy he doesn't care how he is feeling, to "…wipe that chicken off your face and get out there!" after which they which they all ran out. The guy in the Scottish costume is actually Geddy, dressed in make up and wig. At the end of the show, another video of Scottish Geddy plays, where he tells people to go home because he wants to get back to eating his chicken.
The video intro for the second set is all Alex in rare, comical form, playing several characters on the Snakes and Arrows Leela board. The board shifts around the screen and highlights certain lines to which Alex pops up and executes typical Alex rants.
There is a video of Bob & Doug McKenzie to introduce "The Larger Bowl"; "The Larger Bowl" has video snippets showing alternating images between the rich and the poor, etc. Towards the end you see iron gates on 2 screens, but as they focus in on the buildings behind them you see that one is a mansion and the other is a prison.
Alex plays a mandola mounted on an Omega stand during "Workin' Them Angels"; "Workin' Them Angels" had a video accompaniment similar to the album art of various types of workers and soldiers with angel wings.
There is a South Park video intro to Tom Sawyer; during the video, the South Park characters begin playing Tom Sawyer but Cartman sings the wrong lyrics, "…floated down the river on a raft with a black guy", which leads to an argument with Cartman saying he's read the book and that's how the story goes, but the other quickly corrects him saying "that's Huckleberry Finn, stupid!". Cartman then says "I am Geddy Lee! And I will sing whatever lyrics I want!". They then start again to count off the beginning where Rush takes over and plays.
During "A Passage To Bangkok", a video plays showing footage of far east trains, poppy fields, marijuana plants and many other scenes related to the lyrics. (including reefer madness clips of stoned teens during the 50s)
"Digital Man" has a new arrangement, missing the first "He's got a force field" lyric.
The drum solo has been completely revamped. Neil has a slew of new marimba samples, which give the middle section including the "Momo's Dance Party" part an Oriental percussion feel (the "Scars" and "Pieces of Eight" sections have been dropped). Instead of "One O'clock Jump", the solo now includes a complete big band triggered sample of "Cotton Tail", which Neil performed with the Buddy Rich Band on Burning for Buddy Vol. I.
Geddy Lee is playing his 4001 Rickenbacker bass on stage for the first time in 25 years (last seen on the Signals tour).
There are multiple "Barbie Doll" groupies standing on stage in front of Alex Lifeson, holding "Post-It" signs with various sayings on them, apparently created by the roadies. Sayings have included: "I Like The Drummer", "My Grampa Says Your Cool", "Can I Roll Your Bones?", "I'm A Dino-Whore AKA Suckasaurass", "I Was Conceived While My Dad Was At A Rush Concert", "I'm Not Wearing Any Panties", "My Mom Thinks Your Hot!", "I'm Only Doing This To Pay For College", "Freebird!", "I Thought ZZ Top Had Beards", "Bass Player's Cute! Is That His Real Nose?", "I Golf Naked", "Nice Dinosaurs-You Must Be A Caveman", "If It's Too Loud You're Too Old"
Finally, a few links to fan vids taken during the show:
…but a reflection. I made a recommendation to a potential Mac buyer on the Native Instruments forum (software synth makers, among other things) based on my positive experience with the Mac so far. It resulted in a flame from a fervent winsciple about how NI products (and software in general) run so much better on Windows compared to OSX (Mac). He quoted several "tests" that supported this notion by demonstrating CPU efficiency improvements with the same products under both operating systems.
He even admitted to owning a Mac Pro, but stated that he bought it to run Windows because the Mac Pro is "just a windows pc with mac labeling" or words to that effect. He had told the potential buyer he should get a Win pc because of the so called improvements for NI products. Oddly, he didn't state that buying a Mac would actually be the best solution if you truly believed the numbers since you could have the option of running either OS, unlike Win PCs which can't run OSX.
To make a long story short, although I doubted his claims I attempted to load the programs in question into my Windows drive on my Mac (yes, I do run Windows under my mac, but mostly just for a couple of games I can't run on OSX). Scratch a perfectly good Saturday out of my life for that. I spent most of the day loading the programs, and then found I couldn't get my audio interface to work for more than a few minutes before it quit responding and resulting in three BSODs before I called it quits. I think there may have been an eventual solution and I should add that I have Vista which isn't fully supported yet.
It just demonstrates the amount of additional hassle that any Windows related operation involves. I had truly forgotten what it's like to need a regular tweak of various components in your computer just to keep it running. I have been using the Mac for a couple of months now, and with the exception of a program update every couple of weeks, I don't have to do anything except turn it on and use it. It's really as simple as turning on a television or other appliance.
The bottom line is that my personal experience with the Mac has mostly lived up to the hype. The thing works, and it works well. It's not perfect, and I have had a few hiccups along the way, but they all were sorted out in very short order. I can't see ever going back to a Win PC except to run work related stuff if I can't avoid it at home or the odd game that isn't released on Mac.
Not me, no sireee. I (ahem), passed a certain chronological milestone a few days ago and realized I should probably put my thoughts down about it. Trouble is, I'm not really thinking about it that much. It will sink in later when I have to fill out a form where the age range is something like 20-29, 30-39, Ancient and decrepit, etc. Age is clearly a state of mind, but it's something that the younger take great pains in reminding you of. Apparently they're going to be young forever.
I'm fairly happy where I'm at in this part of my life. I have some regrets and some accomplishments I have yet to achieve, but my age isn't going to preclude me from reaching them. It's safe to say that I still wouldn't make it in professional sports even if I could be eighteen again. I hope I'm only at the midpoint of my life now, I'd like another 40+ if I can have them.
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